Webinar: Resilience and regeneration after wildfire in dry mixed-conifer forests of the US Northern Rockies

Description: Over the past several decades, increases in area burned in the western U.S. have caused considerable concern about forest resilience following large wildfires. This concern is especially pronounced in dry mixed-conifer forests, where the combined effects of 20th century land management and land use have altered species composition, fuel loads, and fire regimes.

Kerry Kemp, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Idaho, will present her research on the patterns of post-fire regeneration of tree species across gradients in elevation, latitude, aspect, and burn severity in dry-mixed conifer forests of the US Northern Rockies burned 5 to 13 years prior. Kemp's research investigated specifically, how different landscape characteristics (e.g., topography, elevation) interacted with legacies of the fire environment (e.g., burn severity, patch size, canopy cover) to influence where trees regenerate following large, mixed-severity fires.